


Tough Love

by orphan_account



Category: Epithet Erased (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Bugsy is a huge arsehole in this, I wrote this to cope bls don’t yeet me :)), M/M, Spoilers for Episode 6, Starvation, Third degree burns, Toxic Relationship, domestic abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-19
Updated: 2019-12-19
Packaged: 2021-02-24 16:02:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21860638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Bugsy had changed for the worse after what happened at the tavern and Arnold could feel it. He only wanted to know if his partner was okay.
Relationships: Arnold Markdown/Bugsy Pugsler
Comments: 6
Kudos: 19





	Tough Love

**Author's Note:**

> ❗️TRIGGER WARNINGS❗️  
> -Domestic abuse  
> -Third degree burns  
> -Toxic relationship  
> -Starvation

Arnold felt horrible ever since Bugsy had left him all alone during the police raid of the tavern, which ended up with him being captured and watched over by the bartender, but not for too long.

Bugsy had been home a week after his disappearance, which had worried the coupon lover, he’d never been on the run for so long and just come back like nothing happened.

His lover had changed over that week though, Arnold felt it. He had tried to talk to his partner about what happened but no matter what, if he spoke about it, he’d get shouted at.

It was starting to fuck him up, he just wanted to know what was going on and if his lover was okay, he didn’t care about whether he got arrested or turned into a child or anything!

He got up from his bed, where he’d been laying contemplating in silence, and stormed through to his partner’s room, knocking on his door furiously.

The tall, overweight man opened the door and glared down at Arnold, spitting as he spoke.

“What do you want?”

“You know what I want, Bugs’! I want to know if you’re okay! I want to know what happened out there to change you to act like... A stubborn child!”

Bugsy’s face went from annoyed to angry, a lot more angry than Arnold could ever be or even look.

He reached out a hand and grasped Arnold’s turtleneck collar tightly, tugging him towards the larger of the two.

“Don’t you _dare_ call me a ‘stubborn child’, you _brat_...”

He growled out before giving the smaller a slap to the face, the other being shocked.

Why would his boyfriend do something like this to him? He hadn’t done anything wrong! Besides calling him a child, but that was barely anything.

He stood there, still in Bugsy’s tight hold, his face drained of emotion for a good few seconds. He shakily brought a hand up to his burning cheek and held it as he was shoved away, which made Arnold stumble back and fall.

He looked up at Bugsy and teared up, gritting his teeth as he clenched the dirty carpet in his hand.

“WHO THE _FUCK_ DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!”

He pushed himself up, off the floor, glaring at his boyfriend. He stormed back over to him and pressed a skinny finger into the other’s padded chest.

“WHY IN THE HELL WOULD YOU THINK YOU COULD JUST-...! HURT ME LIKE THA-!”

The annoyed and angered asshole gripped the upset man by his hair, causing a shriek to leave Arnold’s mouth.

He held Arnold close, tilting his head up to look at his face. Boy, he looked even scarier this close.

“If you want to talk to *me* that way again, I’ll lock you in the bathroom for a few days...”

He grumbled out, watching as Arnold squirmed in attempt to get out of his grip, both keeping their eyes on the one in front of them.

Then, Arnold felt a weight come off his face. He *did not* just take his *motherfucking* glasses.

“OI! GIVE THOSE BACK!”

Arnold squeaked out, reaching a hand out to grab his glasses back as he squinted his eyes to try and see what was happening.

Bugsy chuckled at the sight, holding Arnold’s glasses above him, just out of reach, to tease him.

“Or what, Arny? You’re going to *hurt* me?”

He let out another hefty chuckled as he pushed Arnold away again, surprised to see he only stumbled and didn’t fall.

Bugsy smirked widely as he reached another hand up to the glasses and snapped them. That wasn’t all he did though, he also smashed the lenses, right in front of his boyfriend’s blurred vision.

Arnold’s face turned to pure horror, his only pair of glasses had just been smashed and snapped in half.

“YOU DICKHEAD! I’M NOT GOING TO BE ABLE TO SEE PROPERLY FOR DAYS NOW!”

“SUCK IT UP! YOU CAN SEE FINE!”

“NO, I CAN’T! YOU JUST-!”

Arnold groaned loudly, infuriated that that _asshole_ just fucking _broke_ his only way to see properly.

He stormed off, going back into his room and slamming the door. He flopped onto his bed and burst into tears, curling up and holding his face in his hands.

The poor man wept for hours, he didn’t know the last time he let out his emotions, but it was obvious it had been quite a while.

He was interrupted during his little crying session, by his angry partner screaming at him about something.

Arnold had no idea what Bugsy was upset about, he wasn’t able to think straight and, due to the fact how long he had been crying and how hard, he couldn’t hear properly. And his head hurt.

All of a sudden, Arnold felt himself get picked up by the shoulders. He didn’t really react besides crying a lot harder.

All he could tell was that Bugsy was shouting at him and was taking him somewhere for whatever reason.

Arnold remembered his partner telling him he’d lock him in the bathroom for something earlier, but they went right past the bathroom, to the other side of the hallway. To the cramped, hot cupboard.

He let out incoherent shouts of protest but Bugsy didn’t stop, opening the door and shoving him into the small space.

He looked up at his partner, petrified of what was going to happen.

He heard something along the lines of ‘You’re staying in here until you learn your lesson’ come from Bugsy’s mouth before he slammed the door shut and locked it.

Arnold went into panic, banging on the door rapidly. After five minutes of his fists connecting with the door and screaming at the top of his lungs, he gave up.

He sat on the floor and leaned against something quite uncomfortable, hugging his knees to his chest. He felt something begin burn against his back, hissing as he sat forward and looked at whatever was behind him.

He sighed as he realised it was a hot water pipe, realising he probably just ruined his turtleneck.

He got himself comfortable against the other wall, which was, luckily, bare. He sighed and rolled his sleeves up, already beginning to pant from the heat.

The thing that made it so hot was the fact that’s where the boiler was installed. At least if it broke down Bugsy would be forced to go in and fix it.

Arnold closed his eyes and sighed shakily, readying himself for the next few days of darkness.

—

For the first time in a while, Arnold got a pretty good rest, he’d actually slept for a whole day, being woken up by Bugsy clattering around in the kitchen.

He only knew the time because of the boiler screen, he was thankful they had decided to get a newer model.

He had been in the cupboard for a total of four days without being disturbed, but those four days—despite sleeping for one whole day—felt like weeks.

The cupboard had gotten warmer and warmer day after day, resulting in the poor man taking his turtleneck off to wipe all the sweat off himself every once in a while.

He had gone into a panic a few times, one time it was anxiety and the feeling of being abandoned that had made him panic and cry, and another time it was from the fact he wasn’t eating or drinking.

He was so thankful when Bugsy finally unlocked the door and pulled him into a hug. Despite being afraid of him, it was comforting to finally have human contact again.

He sobbed heavily in Bugsy’s hold, tears rolling down his face one after another. He could feel the bigger man rub his back and hush him.

“Why are you so upset? I’m right here, Arny...!”

Arnold couldn’t reply, his throat burned from all the crying he’d done the past few days and he honestly just couldn’t process what to say.

Bugsy’s sudden calm voice turned to one of annoyance, the sweet smile that had been on his face when he opened the cupboard door turned to a grimace.

“Arnold, calm the _fuck_ down and stop acting like a child, only the _weak_ cry,”

Arnold felt his happiness disappear from that one statement; ‘only the weak cry’. He glanced up at his boyfriend with teary eyes and sniffled.

“B- Bug... I-...”

He sputtered out, feeling a thick finger press against his lips, making stop trying to form a sentence immediately.

“Shut up, Arnold, was a few days not enough for you? Shall we leave you in there for a whole week and see how that changes you?”

Arnold gasped and immediately began crying as heavily as he was before.

“NO! NO, PLEASE! PLEASE, BUG! I DON’T WANNA SPEND ANOTHER MINUTE IN THERE ALONE! IT’S-! IT’S HOT! IT’S CRAMPED! I CAN’T-! CAN’T BEAR TO STAY IN THERE ANY LONGER!”

He managed to get out in a panic, gripping onto Bugsy as if he were his lifeline. He technically was his lifeline.

Bugsy hummed and shrugged, pulling Arnold up by the arm, the smaller clinging onto him tightly.

“P-lease... Please, I be-g you...”

He sputtered once more, not watching where they were going.

He was taken to the kitchen, where he quietened down when he noticed Bugsy was cooking.

He heard his stomach growling loudly, begging for food. He began to feel sick at the sight, he’d already grown used to not eating, he had no idea whether he could handle it or not.

“You can eat with me if you’d like, I did cook for the both of us, but,”

He knew that was coming. He wiped his eyes and looked up at Bugsy, his mouth watering.

“Only if you burn yourself.”

Arnold whimpered softly, opening his mouth to speak, a soft sob was the only that left it. He gulped and shuddered.

“Burn myself...On what...?”

He whispered, trying not to burst into tears again. He was so afraid.

“Either pour the kettle water on yourself or press your hand against the heat ring,”

Arnold took a step back, shaking his head as he thought about how much damage the boiler water could do to his body and how much the heat ring could affect him.

“No... No, I- I can’t do ei-ther of those...! I wouldn’t be able to function properly!”

“You’ll die if you don’t, think about that,”

Arnold began shaking at the response, opening his mouth to speak again, tearing up.

“C-an’t you just-?...! Just burn me?! I won’t be able to do it myself!”

Bugsy hummed and grabbed the kettle that, from the looks of things, had just been boiled.

“Come on then, go stand in the bath and I’ll pour it over you,”

Arnold walked to the bathroom and shakily climbed into the tub, kneeling down.

All he heard was Bugsy laughing at him for being ‘pathetic‘ or something similar before pouring the scalding water over him, making him scream.

—

Arnold didn’t end up in hospital despite gaining third degree burns from the hot water, Bugsy refused to take him, and he could just go himself. He could barely move.

Bugsy had done all he could to clean and wrap his burns up so he wouldn’t have to go, besides, if he did, they’d get caught by the police _again_.

Arnold was stuck in bed, thinking over and over about whether he could’ve just refused the offer and survived another week.

At least he was getting fed and watered by his partner every few hours.

The burns had affected his head, parts of his face, his ears, his neck, his arms and his upper torso. His legs, luckily, were fine, but the pain from the burns were too much to allow him to move.

Any time Bugsy came in, whether to talk to him, to feed him or to give him a drink, Arnold would be happy, because he was happy to see him, even after what had happened.

He would hug him and kiss him, telling him how nice it was to see him, even if it had only been ten minutes.

The days were long and the pain grew the longer the burns were left untreated.

He ended up complaining to Bugsy about it multiple times, but all he ever said was ‘you’re fine’ or ‘if we take you to the hospital, we’ll be arrested’.

That was until Arnold began to lose feeling in his arms and chest.

When it had started to get really bad, the poor man screamed out for help, shouting that he couldn’t breathe in the middle of the day.

The only thing Bugsy did? Tell him he was fine and leave him alone.

The next time it got really bad, Arnold _screeched_ , sobbing uncontrollably and hyperventilating.

Bugsy reluctantly took Arnold to the hospital, watching him cry profusely whenever he tried to move, yelling out that it was painful and that he wanted it to stop.

Doctors quickly took him in and, without a second thought, took him in for a skin graft.

When Arnold awoke from surgery the next day, Bugsy apologised constantly.

Arnold told him ‘it’s fine’, as he had heard for what seemed to be forever.


End file.
